Megi downgraded to tropical depression

October 24, 2010 | 12:00

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BEIJING, October 24, 2010 (AFP) - Torrential rain battered southwest China Sunday as Typhoon Megi was downgraded to a tropical depression after wreaking havoc in Taiwan and the Philippines.

Megi, the strongest storm to hit the northwest Pacific in two decades, killed 36 people in the Philippines last week and left 12 dead and two dozen missing in Taiwan as it edged towards China.

But it lost steam after making landfall in southwest China's Fujian province late Saturday night and China's state meteorological bureau downgraded it to a tropical depression early Sunday.

Torrential rains were expected in Fujian and neighbouring Zhejiang province throughout the day, the bureau said.

Taiwanese rescuers continued their search for 25 people left missing after Megi's heavy rains sparked widespread landslides along a coastal highway on the island.

Emergency workers over the weekend dug up nine bodies buried under the debris of a temple swamped by mudslides, while two more were found in houses and one in a port in northeastern Ilan county, the National Fire Agency said.

On Sunday, rescuers discovered the body of a woman at the site of a landside on the highway, a rescue official told reporters.

AFP

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